Conveyer apparatus



M. A. KENDALL ETAL Sept. 12, 1944.

CONVEYER APPARATUS Filed April 1, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 //v VEN #0 RS MrRo/v A. KENDALL (H55 TER C. M0025 A rrys sept. 12, 1944- M, KENDALL EI-AL 2,358,289 7 CONVEYER APPARATUS Filed April 1, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 qua-1m MJ RO/v A. KENDALL CHESTER C Moons Arm s Patented Sept. 12, 1944 CONVEYER APPARATUS MyronA. Kendall and Ch 111., assignors to- Steph a corporation of Illinois ester 0. Moore, Aurora, ens-Adamson Mfg. 00.,

Application April 1, 1943; Serial No. 481,440 Claims. (01. 198-103) Various material classifying devices such as screens and specific gravity separators function most efliciently if the material being classified is spread quite evenly across the width of the classifier. For some methods of separation, a very thin stream is essential and unless the thin stream extends the full width of the apparatus, the remainder of the apparatus is wasted.

According to the present invention, substanti-ally uniform distribution of any loose or granular material across the width of any treating or handling apparatus can be obtained in a very. simple,' inexpensive and trouble-free manner which at the same time will elevate the material sufficiently to run through the treatment unit by gravity.

The preferred form of the invention comprises a circular or wheel-type elevator preferably having the partition walls forming its pockets sloping at such an angle that the last of the ma.- terial being handled will slide therefrom just as the partition finishes passing over the treatment unit so that the full width of the unit will be used with substantially no excess of material. The partitions are preferably adjustable angularly to secure this rials.

This application is a continuation in part of our application, Ser. No. 341,424.

Apparatus forming the embodiment of the invention at present preferred is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a more or less diagrammatic side elevation of one form for'illustration, partly broken away;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken approximately on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the adjustable partitions in the circular elevator of Fig. 2; V

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary detail showing a sectional view taken approximately on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a somewhat diagrammatic side elevational view showing another modification of the invention.

This invention contemplates a combination of a special wheel-type'elevator and some material handling equipment in. which uniform distribution of the material laterally of the material handling equipment is important.

In Fig. 1, the material handling equipment comprises a vibrator screen II in which it is important to have the material spread uniformly in a reasonably thin layer acrossthe width of result with different mateof the invention chosen.

7 within the wheel the screen panel I2; In Fig. 5, the material handling equipment is a belt conveyor I3 which may comprise a sorting or inspection table. Since the material which is hidden by an upper layer misses the inspection, it is obviously important to have the material evenly distributed in a thin layer on such a table. pending application Ser. No. 341,424, the invention has been illustrated in combination with a fine coal cleaner in which the provision of a very'thin stream of coal is essential and in which the stream must be uniform across the width of the cleaner in order to use the full capacity of" the cleaner. v v

-Althoughan important aspect of the invention is the recognition that the combination of amaterial-handling apparatus requiring a thin uniformlayer and a wheel-type elevator properly designed to supply this uniform layer will have exceptional efiiciency, it was also necessary to make some simple although very important changes in the elevator itself. These are best explained with reference to Fig. 2.

The wheel type elevator comprises a wheel l6 supported by rollers I! at least one of which is driven by a motor [8 to drive the wheel. The

wheel "is formed of side plates l9 and. rim 2| so thatit opensinwardly. The material 22 handled, possibly consisting of gravel, is dumped intothe wheel I6 in any desired manner aS by Partitions 24 are provided.

a belt conveyor 23.

It to form a number of pockets in which the" material is raised by the wheel it. As the partitions 24 approach the top of the wheel, the material carried thereby begins to slide offover the lips of the partitions and drop down from the wheel. The point at which this spilling will begin to occur depends on the nature of the material, particularly its angle of repose, but also on the quantity of .material loaded into each pocket. The point. in the cycle at which each partition 24 will begin to spill the material of a given angle ofrepose depends on the volu-f of material which is held by the.

metric quantity partitionfor rather by the relationship'between this quantity and the volume of space available. for it. 'If a cup containing a quantity. of sand.

were slowly tilted by hand, the angle in which the sandwould spill out .woulddepend upon how full the cup is. In the same way, the angle at which the pocket formed by a partition 24 will start to spill depends on how full the pocket is,

With wheel-type elevators of the pasta catcher has been provided to soon as it starts to spill In 0111' CO to be catch the material as from a Wheel-type elevator and direct it to the point of use. According to the present invention, however, the construction is just the opposite. A catcher is provided in advance of the point of use as before,

but instead of carrying this material to the posi- 7 'tinues to be spilled therefrom with approximate uniformity. Ideally, the last of the material would be spilled just as the lip of the partition 24 passes over the far edge of the apparatus II. This ideal can be approximated by providing the partitions 24 at the proper angle within the Wheel I5. Sincethis angle will vary with different materials and even with the amount of moisture in a given material, the partitions 24 are preferably made adjustable as seen in Figs. 3 and 4. This adjustability may be provided in a very simple manner by resting th outer end of the partition on a plate (H which may be welded across the wheel I6. The other end of the partition 24 is supported at each side by a bolt 32and thumb screw 33. The bolt tightens against a slotted flange 34 formed on the partition 24. It is not necessary for the partition 24 or its flange 34 to have an extremely tight fit with the side plates I9 since there is ordinarily no movement between the two and hence the materials ordinarily handled will not leak if the fit is reasonably close.

Because the slot 36 is in the flange 34 rather than 7 in the side plate I9, there is no danger that it will cause leakage. Likewise the plate 3| preered in longitudinally of the apparatus II as by the plates 4|. This might be described as dropping without transverse deflection,

The feeding apparatus may desirably include a loading tray 42 for sifting the material in a thin stream onto the screening panel I2 or other treating member. The loading ledge 43 will tend to maintain a small reservoir of'material in the loading tray 42 and thus spread the stream from each of the partitions 24 just enough to provide the desired uniformity in the loading of the screen I2 or other treating member.

The leading tray '42 is rigidly mounted with the screen panel I2 so that both are vibrated together by an eccentric shaft 46 which is driven by the motor I8 or an independent motor. If a single motor is used, the shaft 41 for driving the vibrating mechanism will usually be a relatively high speed shaft while the shaft 48 for driving the elevator will be a relatively low speed .shaft. The elevator, of course, mustnot be driven at a speed high enough to throw the material outwardly therein by centrifugal force and keep it from spilling out downwardly near the top of the wheel. V

The fairly high speeds of reciprocation of the apparatus II will cause the material which is fed fairly uniformly across the loading pan 42 to spill over the ledge 43 with very satisfactory uniformity.

In view of the fact that the quantity of material being fed determines the position at which any given material bein fed will spill over the lips of partitions 24, it is desirable to fed the material to the elevator l6 at a very uniform rate. For this purpose, the material may be fed to belt 23 by any sort of uniform flow feeder indicated diagrammatically at 5|. In the form thus illustrated, the rate of flow may be adjusted by a vents leakage around the outer edge of the partition 24 as well as supporting the partition.

7 The angles Will probably not be so uniform as to always have the last of the material fall at the far edge of the apparatus I I and in order to use the apparatus to capacity, it will probably be necessary from a practical standpoint to have the angularity of the partitions 24 such that a small amount of material is carried by the apparatus II. For this reason, a catcher is provided beyond the apparatus II. It is important that this catcher carry the material away from the apparatus I I so as not to pile up an excess of the material on the far side of the apparatus I I. The catcher 38-may carry the excess material to a chute 39 which will carry it to the lower part of the wheel I6.

With some material, it may be found that greater uniformity of distribution across the apparatus I I is provided if a substantial amount of the material is carried beyond the apparatus II so that so long as the apparatus is being spilled on the material, its rate of spill will be controlled by the angle of repose of the material itself rather than its angle of slide on the metallic partition 24. However, by slightly roughening the surface of the partition 24, it is believed that the carrying of any substantial excess of material beyond the apparatus II will be unnecessary.

Of course, it is not necessary that all of the material which is treated, drop truly vertically from the partitions 24 to the apparatus II. It should drop directly in the sense that it is not gathered-in or deflected transversely of the apparatus I I but there is no harm in its being gathvertically adjustable plate 52. The feeder 5| has been illustrated as a gravity feed bin but, of course, it could be any other typ of feeder. The material may be fed thereto by a chute 53 or in any other manner. a

. If the material is being fed uniformly by the belt 23 to thewheel I6, the return to this wheel of any material which does not fall on the treating apparatus II might result in a cumulative excess which would ultimately exceed the capacity of the wheel l6 and which in any event would be lifted over and over with a consequent waste of power. Accordingly, it may be desirable under some circumstances to return the excess material (by which is meant all that does not reach 'the unit I.I).to the constant feeder 5|. To accomplish this, gates 54 are provided which may be swung by hand to cause the excess material to drop down through chutes 56 instead of chutes 21 and 39. The chutes 56 lead to constant feeder 5|. Of course, many installations will be built with either the chutes 56 or the chutes 21 and 39 but not both, depending largely on whether or not the constant feeding feature will always be used.

It is not essential to use a constant feeder. Whatever material is fed will be spread across the unit I I at a uniform rate. If there is enough material fed to be spread at this rate across the entire width of the unit II, the entire width will be used. If occasionally more than this quantity is fed, the excess will be returned to the wheel. This excess, can be maintained until the volume of feed is deficient when the excess will supply .the deficiency so longas the excess lasts.

Th structure in Fig. 5 may be substantially 1 the spilling of the identical-with that in Fig. 2 except for the-treat: ing unit, or in this instance a handling unit.;;In this instance, thematerial spilled from the partitions 24 may drop; directly onto a belt [3 which may comprise an inspection or sorting table 58. f preferred, the deflector 59 may beprovided so that all the materials dropped from thepartitions 24 will either hit this deflector or the plates 4|. This will tend to spread the ,individual streams fromthe partitions 24 so that a uniform-j ity comparable to that produced by loading tray 42' will be provided. Of loading tray suchas 42 could beiprovidedbetween the wheel I6 .and the belt l3 if desired, but for most purposes, the uniformity resulting without this vibrating tray will be sufiicient. Fig. 5 has shown a slightly different arrangement of return chutes. In this instance, the chutes 2.! and 39 of Fig. 2 are replaced by achute 6| which extends from below the junction of chutes 56 to a convenient point within the wheel l6. With this arrangement. a single gate 6 2 is all that is required to cause the material to be returned optionally to' the feeder 51 or directly to the wheel lfi It should perhaps be made clear that the use of conveyer 2315 not essential. In some instances, it may even bedesirable to dump the material directly into the wheelLlB fro-m shovels or wheelbarrows and in any event, the apparatus'will" be particularly useful where it is necessary to ele-' vate the material as well as to distribute it uniformly across the handling apparatus II or l3.

From the foregoing, it is seen that a combined material handling apparatus and elevator and feeder therefor has been provided in which the handl ng apparatus functions at 'it'sbest' with a thin. layer ofmaterial spread uniformly thereacross, this" uniform feedingfbeing accomplished by the wheel type elevator which is provided with pocket-forming partitions at such an angle that across the handling apparatus. either side of thehandling apparatus is avoided by virtue of ,thefactthat any material which is spilled from the elevator laterally to either side of: the handling apparatus is not handlingapparatus-but is directed away from it and returned eithentothe wheel or the feedingv apparatus controlling the supply handling apparatus is accomplished. I

It will be apparent that in the practice of this invention, the angularity of the partitions 24 is very important.

with sufiicient ease to provide the desired uniformity in depth of material all across the working area. In the case of a screen, the working area is of course the effective width of the screen panel. It will be observed from Fig. 2 that the material is projected forwardly as it is discharged. This follows 'both from the movement of the wheel and from the flow of the material along its angle of repose. For this reason, it is not neoessarythat the partitions discharge material directly over the far edge of. the workarea for material continuesall the way. Piling up at.

directed. tothe.

to the wheel; In this way, luniformloading of the material sloped for the reasons lower.

v beside it. Ifthe wall 61,

material discharged at that pointwould land beyond the work area.

The angularity necessary to cause the last of the material carried bya partition tospill onto the far edge of the work material depends upon the nature of the material and on the nature of the surface of the partition. Most materials which it is expected to handle with this-apparatus have an angleof repose of around 40". As seen in -Fig. 2, the lip of partition 24a from which material is being discharged almost at the edge of the work area, is about 12 or 13 degrees beyond the high point of the wheel. -It, therefore," has an angularity of about" 12 or 13 degrees steeper than the angularity of-tlie par tition with. respect to the'wheelf Angularity with respect to the Wheel means the angularity with respect to a line tangent to-the wheel at the lip of the partition. 'The slope ofpartition 240; as shown is 40, so that if its surface wererough-' ened so that the material would slide therealo'ng as if sliding onitself, the illustratedangularity would ,be approximately correct for a material having anangle of repose of 40 and for api a-' ratus having other parts in the proportion shown. However, the angularityof the partition 2411 with respeotto the wheel is only in the neghborhood of 28. Fig 3-should be such as to permit adjustmentofi angularity to atvleast as low, as 20 particular material to betreated) and materials or with an I a angularly wider work area, it might. be desirable for the ang e to be still With respect to the :begins, the angularity of the partitions is not important and hence their angularity should do pend entirely .upon thedesired terminal. point of the spilling. Thejcommencing point of spilling will be determined by the loading and the nature of the material.

.The'end Walls 56 work area have been correspond approximately to the. trajectory of thematerial, at this point. If the wall 66 were of. the elevator vertical, its shadow-area with referencev to the a Zone of sparse feeding were'vertical th rebound? it might" cause excessive trajectory might cause of the material from I v V I feeding in the zone besidefit; fIn thi'sinstanoe,

incidentally, itmight beino'ted that ifunder ce'r-f tainl'conditions, thefeeding of the material is found to be ragged near the wallfi'l with a ten dency toward sparseness in this Zone, it might be desirable to have the wall '51 verticalij'or even slope it slightly outwardly tocempensate for this raggedness andprovide greater uniformityoffeed': On the other hand it may be found one or both of the end walls of the loading tray I2 should be described in connection withwalls 66 and 67.

We claim: 1. Material handling apparatus including supply means, a handling unit substantially thereabove requiring material to be fed thereto in a layer and for maximum capacity requiring the feeding to be uniform across the width thereof, and means for elevatingmaterial to be classified from the supply means and feeding it uniformly along substantially the full comprising a wheel-type elevator having a rim; sides extending inwardly therefrom not over onefourth the radius of therim and pocket-forming partitions therein subdividing over half of the The features of adjustability shown}in V (unle ss"j a. larger angle is" known to be small enough'forfa withsome point atwhich the spilling and s1 atthe as e n" shown slightly sloping to width of said unit rim, sides extending cross-sectional area between the sides and which at the upper part of the elevator pass transversely of and above the unit and which are disposed at such an angle that some material will be retained on each'partition, as it passes across the unit, long enough to fall; without deflection laterally'of the unit, substantially at the far edge of the work area of the unit, and chute means at both sides of the unit for carrying all material which is spilled from the partitions laterally to either side of the unit back to the handling apparatus. A 1

2. Material handling apparatus including supply means, a handling unit substantially there-. above requiring material to be fed thereto in a layer and for maximum capacity requiring the feeding to be uniform across the width thereof, and means for elevating material to be classified from the supply means and feeding it uniformlyalong substantially the full'width of said unit comprising a wheel-type elevator having a one-fourth the radius. of the-rim and pocketforming partitions therein subdividing over half of the cross-sectional area between the sides and which at the upper part of the elevator pass transversely of and above the unit and which are disposed at such an angle that some material will be retained on each partition, as it passes across the unit, long enough to fall, without deflection laterally of the unit, substantiallyat the far edge of the work area of th unit, and chute means at both sides of the unit for carrying all material which is spilled from the partitions laterally to either side of the unit back to the handling apparatus, said partitions being adjustable a to angularity to spill the last of the material approximately onto the far edge of the work area of the unit. V l a 3. Material handling apparatus including supply means, a handling unit substantially thereabove requiring material to be fed thereto in a layer and for maximum capacity requiring the feeding to be uniform across the width thereof, and means for eleva ing material to be classified from the supply means and feeding it uniformly along substantially the full widlth of said unit comprising a wheel-type sides extending inwardly therefrom not over onefourth the radius of the rimrand pocket-forming partitions therein subdividing over half of the cross sectional area between the sides and which at the upper part of the elevator pass transversely of and above the unit and which are disposed at such an angle that some material will be re-' tained on each partition, as it passes across the unit, long enough to fall, without deflection late erally of the unit, substantially at the far edge of the work area of the unit, chute means at both elevator having a rim,

sides of the unit for carrying all material which is-spilled from the'partitions laterally to either side of the unit back to th handling'apparatus,

inwardly therefromnot over sides extending inwardly fourth the radius of the and'means for loading the elevator uniformly with a load of such volume that it will begin to spill from the partition at substantially the right time to fall onto the near edge ofthe work area without deflection laterallyof the unit,

4. Material handling apparatus including supply means, a handling unit substantially thereabove requiring material to be fed thereto in a layer and for maximum capacity requiring the feeding t'o-be uniform acros the width thereof, and means for elevating material to be classified from the supply means and feeding it uniformly along substantially the full width of said unit comprising a wheel-type elevator havin a rim, sides extending inwardly therefrom not over onefourth the radius of the rim and pocket-forming partitions therein subdividing over half of the cross-sectional area between the sides and which at the upper part of the elevator pass transversely of and above the unit and which are disposed at such an angle that some material will be retained on each partition, as it passes across the unit, long enough to fall, without deflection laterally of the unit, substantially at the far edge of the work area of the unit, said partitions being adjustable as to .angularity to spill the last of the material approximately onto the far edge of the work area of the unit.

5. Material handling apparatus including supply means, a handling unit substantially thereabove requiring material to be fed thereto in a layer and for maximum capacity requiring the feeding to be uniform across the width thereof, and means for elevating material to be classified from the supply means and feeding. it uniformly alon substantially the full width of said unit comprising a wheel-type elevator having a rim,

therefrom not over onerim and pocket-forming partitions therein subdividing over half of the cros sectional area at the upper part of the elevator pass transversely of and above the unit and which are disposed at such an angle that the last of the material will be spilled approximately at the right position to fall, without deflection laterally 'of the unit, substantially at the far edge of the work area of the unit, and means for loading the elevator uniformly with aload of such volume that it will begin to spill from the partition at substantially the right time to fall onto the near edge of the work area without deflection laterally of the unit.

MYRON A. KENDALL. CHESTER c. MOORE.

between the sides and which 

